WORLD WAR II
Atlantic Charter (August 1941): Churchill and U.S. President Franklin
Roosevelt met secretly after the invasion of Soviet Union.
Atlantic Charter (August 1941)
a. Agreement once Axis Powers were defeated, there would be no
territorial changes contrary to the wishes of inhabitants (selfdetermination)
b. Called for “a permanent system of general security”: later became
the United Nations
c. Stalin endorsed the agreement
d. The U.S. remained militarily neutral until December, 1941
 Neutrality Acts in 1930s prevented FDR from drawing U.S. into the
conflict earlier
 Lend-Lease Act (1941) gave large amounts of money and supplies
to help Britain and Soviets; effectively ended U.S. neutrality
Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor,
December 7, 1941, resulted in
U.S. entry into the war.
FDR signs
the U.S.
declaration
of war
against
Japan,
December
8, 1941.
In response to the United States, Hitler declared war on the
U.S. on December 11
 Instead of focusing on Japan (who had attacked the
U.S.), the U.S. (along with Britain) would now instead
focus on defeating Germany first.
The Grand Alliance formed in 1942.
 Consisted of Britain, the Soviet Union and the U.S. as
well as two dozen other countries
TUESDAY, MAY
TH
5
SWBAT identify the major battles and events on
the European Front
Do Now: During World War II, the federal government urged
Americans to support the war effort by
(1) manufacturing more consumer goods
(2) increasing spending to stimulate the economy
(3) reducing consumption of resources needed for the military
(4) investing their savings in the stock market
WORLD WAR II ALLIANCES
Axis
Germany (1939)
Italy (1939)
Japan (1940)
Hungary (1940)
Romania (1940)
Bulgaria (1941)
vs.
Allies
Great Britain (1939)
France (1939)
U.S.S.R. (1941)
U.S. (1941)
China +
Nazi Empire in Europe
German victories by the end of 1941
1. Controlled all of western Europe (except for
neutral Switzerland & Sweden): Austria,
Czechoslovakia, western Poland, France,
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway,
western Russia.
2. Spain allowed Germany the use of its ports
(although Spain remained essentially neutral).
The Nazi “New Order”
1. Nazis exploited Europe for its economic value.
2. Nordic peoples – Dutch, Norwegians, and Danes—
received preferential treatment as they were racially
related to Germans.
3. Hitler heavily taxed the French as they were seen as
“inferior” Latin people; they were tolerated as a race.
4. Slavs in eastern Europe were seen as “subhuman.”
a. Men and women used for slave labor to work in
German factories.
b.Hitler planned that Poles, Ukrainians, and
Russians would be enslaved and forced to die
out, while Germanic peasants resettled the
resulting abandoned lands.
c. Polish workers and Soviet prisoners of war were
transported to Germany where they did most of
the heavy labor and were systematically worked
to death.
• 80% of Soviet prisoners did not survive the
war.
Genocide of Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah’s
Witnesses, and captured communists
1. Businesses and property were confiscated.
2. Jews had to register with gov't authorities & wear yellow
ID stars.
3. In Poland, Jews were forced to live in ghettos (e.g.
Warsaw and Krakow).
a. Deprived of adequate supplies
b. Several families crammed into a single apartment
c. Forbidden contact with the outside world
Photo after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943
“Forcibly pulled out of dug-outs.”
“Final Solution” to the Jewish Problem: began in
late 1941
a. Formal plan came at Wannsee Conference in 1942
b. Six death camps were built in Poland in addition to
hundreds of concentration camps.
• Auschwitz was the most notorious.
c. 6 million Jews were killed (approximately 2/3 of the
pre-war Jewish population).
d. Between 5-6 million others also murdered including
political prisoners, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies,
and gays and lesbians
The rest of the world largely ignored the Holocaust while
millions of Jews were sent to concentration camps and
death camps.
View of the entrance to the main camp of Auschwitz (Auschwitz I).
The gate bears the motto “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work makes one
free”)
Auschwitz
Women fit for work after the delousing process. The
disinfection of those not selected for the gas chambers, and
the shaving of their heads, was all part of the "registration"
process at the camp. After they finished, they were given the
prison uniforms seen in the picture.
Survivors in the
"Russian Camp"
Turning points in the war
El Alamein, November 1942
1. By November, British forces (led by Bernard Montgomery) drove
the Germans (led by Erwin Rommel—the “Desert Fox”) out of
Egypt.
2. “Operation Torch” (Nov. 1942)
a. Meanwhile, U.S. and British forces landed on the beaches
of Morocco and Algeria and engaged retreating German
forces.
b. Rommel’s Afrikakorps were surrounded by Allied armies
and defeated by May, 1943 and removed from Africa while
suffering mass casualties and prisoners of war.
3. Hitler’s decision to invade the USSR instead of
defeating Britain in the Mediterranean now proved
disastrous.
4. Allied victory in North Africa opened the door for the
invasion of Italy in July, 1943.
WEDNESDAY, MAY
TH
6
SWBAT identify the final battles and diplomacy
of WWII
Do Now: Name two turning points of the War
on the European front?
Stalingrad (Nov. 1942—Feb. 1943)
1. Critical battle of the Eastern Front
 First German land defeat in Europe
2. Hitler sought to take the industrial city of Stalingrad en
route to taking control of Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus
region.
3. German armies were eventually surrounded by Soviet
forces.
 Hitler refused to allow the German forces to surrender
and thus the bulk of the German army in Stalingrad
(300,000 men) was destroyed in the battle.
4. After the battle, the Soviets began the 2 ½-year
campaign of pushing the German army back to
Berlin.
5. Subsequent battle of Kursk (July 1943) was the
largest tank battle in human history ending in a
Russian victory.
6. By February 1945 Soviet armies had penetrated to
the outskirts of Berlin.
D-Day, “Operation Overlord”, June 6, 1944
1. 120,000 troops crossed the English Channel from southern
England and invaded France in an amphibious assault on
Normandy (northern French coast).
• Success of D-Day demonstrated how important the Battle of
Britain had been in 1940 when Germany failed to defeat the
RAF and invade England.
“OPERATION OVERLORD,” NORMANDY
U.S. troops storm Omaha Beach in Normandy on June 6,
1944.
The Normandy Beach as it appeared after D-Day.
Western front established
a. Spelled the end of Nazi domination of Europe.
b. Paris was liberated 1 month later.
c. Hitler was now fighting on three fronts: east
against Russians; west against U.S. and Britain
(and France); and in Italy against U.S. and Britain.
d. By the fall, Allied troops reached the German
border and were preparing for an invasion of
Germany.
Battle of the Bulge, Dec. 1944
1. Hitler's last gasp offensive to drive Allies
away from the western German border
2. Brutal fighting in the dead of winter resulted
in frightful casualties on both sides.
3. After Hitler’s counteroffensive failed, the
Allies quickly penetrated deep into Germany in
1945.
May 8, 1945: Germany surrendered (Hitler
committed suicide a few days earlier)
This is one of the last pictures taken of Adolf Hitler during his last days in his
bunker underneath the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
End of the war against Japan: August 1945
1.U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
2.The Soviet Union entered the war against
Japan on August 8.
3. Japan surrendered although the emperor was
allowed to remain on the throne.
Nagasaki,
August 9,
1945
Nagasaki:
before (top)
and after
(bottom)
Diplomacy during the war
A. Casablanca Conference, 1943:
1. FDR and Churchill declared a policy of unconditional
surrender for “all enemies.”
2. Italy would be invaded first before opening a second
front in France.
• Stalin never forgave the Allies for putting off an
invasion of France until 1944: it ensured the
Russians would have to fight the brunt of the
German army alone.
B. Tehran Conference, 1943: First meeting of the “Big
Three”—Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin
1. Allies agreed to an invasion of Western Europe in 1944.
2. Stalin reaffirmed the Soviet commitment to enter the war
against Japan once Germany had been defeated.
3. Stalin insisted on Soviet control of eastern Europe
and the carving up of Germany amongst the Allies.
• Churchill demanded free governments in eastern
Europe and a strong Germany after the war to
preserve a balance of power in Europe.
4. Roosevelt acted as a mediator and believed he could
work with Stalin to achieve a post-world peace within
the construct of the United Nations.
C. Yalta Conference, 1945: "Big Three" met again
1. Stalin agreed to enter Pacific war within 3 months
after Germany surrendered.
2. Stalin agreed to a “Declaration of Liberated
Europe” which called for free elections.
3. Called for United Nations to meet in U.S. beginning
in April 1945
a. Soviets would have 3 votes in General
Assembly.
b. U.S., Britain, USSR, France and China were to
be permanent members of the Security Council.
4. Germany to be divided into occupied zones and a
coalition government of communists and noncommunists was agreed to for Poland.
5. U.S.S.R. allowed to keep its pre-1939 territory.
6. FDR accepted Soviet control of Outer Mongolia, the
Kurile Islands, the southern half of Sakhalin Island,
Port Arthur (Darien), and partial operation of the
Manchurian railroads.
D. Potsdam Conference, July 1945: Stalin, U.S. President
Harry Truman and British Prime Minister Clement Atlee
1. Issued an ultimatum to Japan for unconditional surrender
or it would face utter devastation.
• During the conference Truman ordered the dropping of
atomic bombs on Japan.
2. Stalin reversed his position on eastern Europe stating
there would be no free elections.
3. Approvals given to the concept of war-crimes trials and
the demilitarization and de-Nazification of Germany.
4. Reparations from Germany could be taken from each
respective zone.
Results of the war
A.Human losses: About 55 million dead (including
missing)
1. 22 million in the USSR alone
2. Holocaust resulted in deaths of 6 million Jews
and 6 million others
B.Millions left homeless and millions relocated
(especially Germans living outside Germany)
C.Much of Europe lay in ruins: would take years to
rebuild the economy
D.Women played even larger role in the war economy
than in WWI (gained more rights after the war)
E.The U.S. and Soviet Union emerged as the two
dominant powers in the postwar world.
• Post-war competition for influence in Europe
resulted in the Cold War.